Regional hearing on gun bills at Assumption on Monday

WORCESTER — A second regional hearing on more than 60 gun bills filed by state lawmakers will take place Monday at Assumption College beginning at 10 a.m. in Hagan Campus Center.

Many of the bills were filed after the shooting massacre at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. Lawmakers will look at legislation that could ban types of ammunition, create new firearms charges, create a registry for gun offenders and require background and mental health checks on buyers.

One of the proposed bills could limit gun purchases to one per month and require gun license applicants to sign a waiver allowing police to access their mental health records.

Rep. Harold P. Naughton Jr., D-Clinton, and Sen. James E. Timilty, D-Walpole, the House and Senate chairmen on the Joint Committee on Public Safety and Homeland Security, anticipate a wide variety of testimony.

Mr. Naughton said it is important to have hearings on the bills outside the Statehouse, considering the subject material and the large number of bills filed.

"At the end of the day, I don't want anyone in the commonwealth to be able to feel that they didn't have some access or input to this process," he said.

Having the hearings is important as legislators work to reduce gun violence in the state without trampling on people's Constitutional rights, the representative said.

Mr. Naughton said he had met with mothers who lost loved ones to gun violence and met with City Councilor Sarai Rivera and groups concerned about gun violence in Worcester. He had also met with Second Amendment advocates.

Some people might not think about others affected by gun regulation changes.

The representative has met with employees at Smith & Wesson in Springfield. The company is one of the biggest employers in that area, and employees there are worried about their livelihoods.

"It is a delicate balance in the end," Mr. Naughton said.

It is important for legislators to hear these experiences and learn from them to make the process better, he said.

Mr. Naughton said that in his 19 years in the Legislature, he has never seen so many bills filed on one specific subject. He said the discussion of mental illness as it relates to gun violence is a big piece.

The bills on firearms cover different matters, including gun licensing and regulations, hunting and safety.

Anyone who wants to testify during the hearing must sign in with committee staff members before the start of the hearing. This is the second of five hearings on the subject.